Solid Wood keeps 2017 season alive for Dodgers
His winning work comes on day with added significance.
Others might have viewed it as a coincidence. Alex Wood interpreted it as a sign from a higher power.
“I believe in fate. I believe everything happens for a reason,” the Dodgers left-hander said. Saturday was Oct. 28. His parents were engaged on this day almost three decades earlier. His fiancee was born on this day. His best friend, Chase Veazey, was paralyzed in a car accident on this day eight years ago.
Veazey was in attendance Saturday night at Minute Maid Park as Wood delivered the performance of a lifetime, limiting the Houston Astros to a solitary run over 5⅔ innings in a 6-2 victory in Game 4 of the World Series.
The win salvaged the Dodgers season.With a loss, they would have trailed the bestof-seven series three games to one. Instead, they pulled even, two games to two, with Clayton Kershaw scheduled to scale the mound for them in Game 5 late Sunday.
Game 6 will be played at Dodger Stadium, as would Game 7, if necessary. “The difference between 3-1 and 2-2 is everything,” outfielder Chris Taylor said.
There was never any question Wood had the fortitude to pitch a game like this. He displayed the depth of his character in the first month of the season.
When the Dodgers broke spring training, decision-makers didn’t consider Alex Wood as one of their five best starting pitchers. Wood told manager Dave Roberts they were making a mistake, but the decision was made. He was to start the season in the bullpen.
In this instance, Wood’s versatility worked against him, his experience as a reliever making the team comfortable stashing him in its bullpen. Kershaw, Kenta Maeda, Rich Hill, Brandon McCarthy and Hyun-Jin Ryu started the season in the rotation.
Wood didn’t complain. He didn’t feel sorry for himself. Instead, he competed. By the end of April he was in the rotation. He won his first 11 decisions and earned a place on the NL All-Star team.
He entered the All-Star break with a 1.67 ERA. In the 12 starts he made over the remainder of the season, his ERA was 3.89. That was enough to knock him down the team’s pecking order.
Wood didn’t pitch in the NL division series. When he started Game 4 of the NL Championship Series, he was more than four weeks removed from his last start. Wood lasted only 4⅔ innings, allowing three solo home runs in a 3-2 loss.
The Dodgers couldn’t afford for him to have another start like that. But on Sunday, Wood was masterful, with a no-hitter through five innings.
He allowed one hit and the bullpen allowed only one more hit over the remainder of the game, a ninth-inning solo home run by Alex Bregman off closer Kenley Jansen. By then, the Dodgers had tied the game in the seventh and blown it open with a five-run inning in the ninth.
“Woody was unbelievable tonight,” Taylor said Saturday. “Just so happy for him he could have that start. We don’t win without Woody.”